Processing of biomass-derived hemicellulose hydrolysates for the production of specific alditols is complicated, inefficient and costly. There are, for example, great difficulties in attaining a significant high purity alditol extraction yield through the use of hemicellulosic raw material feedstock. There are continually cascading losses associated with the various purification and separation unit operations, among other process steps, carried out in accordance with the established state-of-the-art, that result in hindered efficiency and reduced scale of alditol recovery. Currently, sorbitol is made from single stream C6 sugars, usually hydrogenated corn glucose, while xylitol is made from single stream C5 sugars derived from larch or poplar trees. There remains a need in the art for a process that can utilize mixed C5/C6 sugar streams derived from diverse unsegregated hemicellulosic feedstock to recover respective targeted C5/C6 alditols in addition to, and if desired, C2-C4 targeted glycols.
Indeed, there remains a need in the art for an efficient and high yielding process directed to the recovery of high purity alditols, and other target co-products, derived from diverse biomass while minimizing inefficiencies and losses associated with further downstream operations.